While the familiar story of Nirvana centres on the earth-shattering effect of Nevermind and its follow-up, In Utero, the band had an extensive history before they burst onto the charts in 1991. Nirvana had been making waves in the underground for years before the release of their sophomore effort, with their 1989 debut Bleach a staple of the era’s sludgy artistic movement.
Before Dave Grohl was enlisted on the drums and prior to frontman Kurt Cobain perfecting the quiet-loud-quiet dynamics brought to the fore by Pixies, the lineup that gave the world Bleach was interesting. The band’s only release on Seattle label Sub Pop contained the work of Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Chad Channing.
Notably, Channing’s time in the band was brief, with the drummer helming their rhythms from 1988 to 1990 before he mutually left in light of creative differences and the fact he was increasingly frustrated, wanting to be more involved in the songwriting process. Yet, despite his ephemeral part in the story, it was consequential, with him playing in the trio at a time of significant artistic advancement.
Bleach contains many highlights, including ‘About a Girl’, ‘Blew’ and their cover of Shocking Blue’s ‘Love Buzz’. One of the other most lauded tracks from the record is ‘Big Cheese’, an especially sludgy effort. The song has always been thought to have been about Sub Pop co-founder Jonathan Poneman and the pressure he was putting on Cobain’s creative process. Cobain told biographer Michael Azerrad: “I was expressing all the pressures that I felt from him at the time because he was being so judgmental about what we were recording.”
Despite the tension that fuelled the track, in the years since Kurt Cobain’s tragic suicide in 1994, both Novoselic and Channing have expressed their admiration for it. The former called it “one of the best” they worked on during their time in the band together.
Novoselic told Seattle Weekly in 2009: “I think one of the best songs you and I worked together on was ‘Big Cheese’. Kurt came up with that two-note riff for the verses. You and I took off for that instrumental bridge. I went up high on the neck of the bass, and you did that great double kick!”
Channing added: “That’s one of my favourite songs. You know why it really worked for me? My friends and I would play our 45s on 33 rpm. It would sound deeper and heavier at that speed.”
